Today, cultural creators flock to Berlin, but in the 1980s and 1990s, the undisputed center of the West German art and culture scene was located elsewhere: in Cologne. The turning point for Cologne's rise came on January 15, 1980, when the unknown British band Joy Division played in the basement. Peter Bömmels, a member of the artist group Mühlheimer Freiheit, was so impressed by this new sound that he soon founded the magazine SPEX with seven collaborators. This marked the emergence of a completely new music journalism, whose cultural analyses and bold theses were conceived late at the same bar counters where, at the same time, the future founders of the techno label Kompakt were standing, while New York artists and the minds behind the legendary authors' workshop drank next door. The entire city buzzed with creative energy, and while just a few kilometers away the government was being directed, the cultural metropolis of Cologne radiated far beyond the borders of the Rhineland for about 15 years. Gisa Funck and Gregor Schwering have met key figures from that time. They have collected stories, studied historical documents, and delved into their own memories. Their book is a portrait of a bygone era and the last pre-digital bohemia.